Business, Commerce, and Accounting

Collection Development Policy

Hazel Cameron, Librarian

1. Applicable LC Classes:

Call No.	Subject Heading
HF 1-4055	Commerce, Trade, Tariffs
HF 5001-5549.5	Business, Marketing, Management
HF 5601-5716	Accounting, Business Mathematics
HF 5717-5746	Business Communication and Records Management
HF 5761-5780	Shipment, Delivery of Goods
HF 5801-6182	Advertising

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2. Academic Departments, Programs, etc.:

Master of Business Administration
Decision Sciences
Marketing/Finance
Management
Accounting
Economics (economics of trade)
Mathematics
Communications
Psychology (motivation, leadership)
Art (advertising)
Political Sciences (regulations and policies of trade, tariffs, etc.
History (commerce, trade)

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3. Collection Levels:

Call No.	Subject Heading	Present	Desired
HF 1-4055	Commerce, Trade, Tariffs	2b	3c
HF 5001-5549.5	Business, Marketing, Management	3c	3c
HF 5601-5716	Accounting, Business Mathematics	2a	3c
HF 5717-5746	Business Communication and Records Management	2b	2b
HF 5761-5780	Shipment, Delivery of Goods	2b	2b
HF 5801-6182	3c	3c

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4. Scope:

	Present	Desired
Geographic:	US	International
Language:	English	English
Chronological limitations:	Current, with some historic trade	Current, with some historic trade

5. Formats collected/Non-Subject Parameters:

Audiovisual, print (book, journals, working papers), electronic (text and data)

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6. System Coordination and Resource Sharing:

We are able to borrow some materials through Cascade. This does not apply to electronic data, or reference materials. Many of the materials we need in accounting fall into this category.

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7. Electronic Databases:

We have a number of databases that support this area:

ProQuest
MCB Emerald
Mergent's Online
FARS (CD ROM)
CCH Internet Tax Service
Some use of Standard and Poor's Insight and Compustat (CD only - not networked)

There are increasing resources available on the Internet. Most government documents on new taxation issues and accounting information can be found there. Unfortunately it is difficult to find information on the Internet and therefore special web pages need to be made that identify key resources which are considered ``quality.''

We have a large number of full text databases so students can use information anywhere, anytime.

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8. Notable Features:
None

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9. Narrative Statement:

There are insufficient funds to purchase necessary standards and datasets required to support Accounting. These are often extremely expensive.

There are insufficient funds to purchase more than a few videos to support the delivery of visual information in this field. There is a huge need for staff training across this campus (inhouse training is much less expensive than sending staff to conferences). There is no budget other than the business budget to buy these materials - only some of which really support the curriculum.

The whole field of accounting is rapidly changing as new safeguards are put in place to ensure accountability and corporate governance. Almost the entire budget is spent on journals and few books are being bought. We therefore cannot support research dependent on books which often give an overview of a subject. We have bought an average of 2 books in this field in the last few years. A collection assessment last year showed that we had only 12% of the core materials a library our size was expected to have. Use of the collection, however, was high. Students therefore are using out of date materials. There is little in our collection reflecting international accounting. Yet, globalization of information is stressed and several accounting courses now look at global accounting and global issues in accounting. It is necessary to collect on a more global nature.

We have almost no tax resources in our library - our collection is very accounting focused. It would be nice also to have more marketing related databases that package materials the way students use them. For example, SWOT analyses are available for sale, but we can't afford to buy them. We also cannot afford to buy many of the Datamonitor and Euromonitor publications which provide up to date statistics on international marketplaces. We have a poor collection of marketing materials for non-American, non-Asian materials. We do have a modest collection of European sources but little on developing countries or middle eastern countries.

Most of the management collection is very US oriented. We almost have no books on management theories or management gurus from other countries. Almost everything we collect is published in the US. We need to more aggressively pursue English language materials published elsewhere. Unfortunately the Choice card service and the Blackwell slips tend to be highly US focused.

E-commerce and virtual environments have recently revolutionized the way business is conducted. This means many books are out of date as much information in them is not useful anymore. The field of business and management also is becoming increasingly segmented and specialized. It is difficult to know one year to the next what specialization will be in vogue due to the constant change of adjuncts and faculty, as well as the fact that most students are free to choose their own topics or partner with a live firm in town to conduct some service learning partnership.

There has also been a massive switch in focus from the large US company to the multinational, nonprofit or private company. These are areas where we have not formerly collected many materials.